Lord Renwick of Clifton – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Renwick of Clifton on 2016-05-23.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether they continue to support the admission of Turkey to the EU.

Baroness Anelay of St Johns

The Government supports the process of Turkey’s EU accession, which remains the most effective means of encouraging reform, stability and democracy in Turkey. But as the Prime Minister, my Rt Hon. Friend the Member for Witney (Mr Cameron), has made it clear that the question of Turkey actually joining the EU is ‘not remotely on the cards’, indeed that he does not believe it will happen ‘for decades’. Every Member State has a veto, at every stage of the process. It is the Government’s policy not to agree to any further enlargement of the EU without a new system of controls on the movement of workers being put in place. Under the European Union Act 2011, any new Accession Treaty would require primary legislation before it could be ratified.